CHA Biotech sell stake in U.S. branch to focus on stem cell tereatment

By Lim Chang-won Posted : June 25, 2019, 15:48 Updated : June 25, 2019, 15:48

[Gettyimages Bank]

SEOUL -- CHA Biotech, a biopharmaceutical company in South Korea, secured an additional fund of 54.3 billion won ($47 million) to speed up the development of stem cell treatments by selling off a controlling stake in its U.S. branch.

CHA Biotech said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it sold a 60 percent stake in Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine International to Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a subsidiary of Astellas Pharma, an American company which develops stem cell therapies with a focus on diseases that cause blindness.

"Based on the country's largest stem cell pipeline, we will strive harder to advance the commercialization of our products," CHA Biotech CEO Oh Sang-hoon said. CHA Biotech's parent medical group established a cell therapy center in Tokyo in 2013.

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